Sgheiza

This is an appeal from a judgment for $5,000 in favor of respondent, the mother and sole heir of Vito Sgheiza, her son, who was killed in an automobile accident September 14, 1931, at the intersection of two highways in Sonoma County. At the time of the death of Vito Sgheiza he was twenty-nine years of age and unmarried. He had for years contributed twenty dollars a month and some groceries towards his mother’s support, and helped her on her little farm of thirteen acres. The plaintiff had a life expectancy of 17.52 years at the time of the death of her son.

At the time of the accident and resulting injuries to the deceased he was riding in an automobile driven by his brother, and Matilda Jakober, a minor of the age of sixteen years, was driving another automobile, belonging to, and' in which her father, Carl B. Jakober, was riding. The minor’s application for a driver’s license was signed by both her father, Carl B. Jakober, and her mother, Matilda Jakober. Some years before the accident the minor’s mother and father were divorced, and the exclusive control of the minor was awarded to and remained in the father.

The lower court found that the defendant driver was guilty of…